In the Other's Shoes
by Remi Mayier
Summary: Tifa never got jealous of Cloud and other woman. Really. She didn't.


Title: In the Other's Shoes  
Fandom: FFVII  
Warnings: None.  
Prompt: Jealous Tifa at Final Fantasy VII Het Meme  
A/N: This is my first time posting a fic. Here's to hoping it is good.

* * *

He was laughing. Cloud Strife was laughing.

Which Tifa wouldn't have found extremely strange, if it weren't for the fact that he… was laughing, you know, the full-blown-clutch-your-sides-wipe-away-the-tears-laughter.

It should have made her happy; she should just smile and get back to cleaning the bar. She should be laughing with him. His laugh was more reassurance that things were getting better. That Cloud had actually started to move on. She _should_ be happy.

So why wasn't she?

_Simple._ She thought her hand rubbing circles with the dish rag probably much harder than needed. Cloud wasn't laughing because of something that Barret, or Cid, or Yuffie, or any of their other eccentric friends, had said. He wasn't laughing so hard that he had to wipe tears out of his eyes with her, or with Denzel or Marlene.

Cloud was laughing with another woman.

Which was absolutely alright, she reasoned, she wasn't angry because Cloud was laughing with someone else. Even if that someone else was a very pretty woman with auburn hair and brown eyes that shone more like warm cinnamon then her darker ones. No, she wasn't angry about that she was simply angry because it was ten minutes past closing and the woman was still _here_.

Tifa had absolutely no qualms in letting customer stay and finish their drinks or food before going home but they were _paying_ customers. The woman had been here a little over half an hour and was only sipping on a cup of water.

So yes, that was what she was angry, she reasoned as she finished wiping down the counter. She spared Cloud and the woman a look just in time to see the woman flip her curly hair and fix Cloud with a sweet smile.

Her gaze tore away from the two when the sound of breaking glass filled her ears. She stared at the mess on the floor seriously considering just giving up and going to bed-really that was the third glass she broke tonight. Before she could even talk herself out of it, they where young children to think of, a blonde head interrupted her vision.

"I can get it, Cloud," she snapped, "Go back to…" She was going to say "your date" but cut off abruptly when she realized the woman was now gone. She hadn't even heard the bell above to door ring.

"Go where?" he asked standing with a dustpan full of broken glass.

"Go plan your routes." she offered.

Slipping away from the bar to clean the now unoccupied table she hadn't realized that he didn't take her advice until he spoke.

"Jealously is not very becoming of you."

Immediately Tifa whirled around. For a moment she just stared at him, leaning against the counter with his arms crossed, a loss for words.

Then she found them, "I am not jealous. I'm just angry you didn't have your friend leave at closing."

She inwardly cringed hoping he hadn't caught the way she spat out "friend." Judging by the smug look he offered her, she figured fate was against her tonight.

Turning back to cleaning of the table, she answered, "Alright, maybe I am a little jealous but it's only because you where flirting with her."

She heard him shift behind her, moving from the counter. "Like you flirt with the customers?"

Now she found herself facing blonde hair and blue eyes again. She wanted to scream at him, but the knowledge of two sleeping children upstairs, caused her voice to be only an angry whisper, "That is completely different. I don't flirt with them, they flirt with me, and I have always been upfront with you about that."

"Besides Cloud, we've been over this a hundred times you have nothing to be jealous of. I would never do anything like that. I even stopped wearing skirts while I worked, why can't you let it go? Do you really think that low of me?"

He was immediately in front of her after that. His arms founding hers she couldn't move away from him, "No, of course not." He cupped her face with his hands, "Do you really think that low of me?"

She stared into startlingly blue eyes; she knew the answer right away. Cloud had made a lot of mistakes in the past that caused pain to his family and his friends. But that pain was always an extension of a decision he made to try and keep them from pain, trying to internalize it all so they wouldn't go through what he did. He was selfless when it came to the people he cared about, he thought about them more than he ever thought of himself. He would never do something that selfish. "No. No, you would never do that."

"But it still didn't keep you from getting jealous."

She looked down, "No you right." Then back into his eyes, "Alright, no more fights or lectures on why you shouldn't get jealous. But –"

She grabbed his hand and continued, "But this doesn't mean you can glare at them or throw them out. It is my bar and I will deal with all customers as I see fit."

Blue eyes looked at her beseechingly behind a blonde fringe, "Unless it's Reno?"

She agreed, "Unless it's Reno." She smiled at him, then almost immediately pushed him away, "I'm still mad at you though." Tifa said grabbing the dirty dishes and going to the sink.

"What? Why?" Cloud immediately followed, sitting himself down in a chair at the bar.

"Why?" she said, facing him at the bar, "Because you flirted with some random girl just to prove your point. You don't do that to people, Cloud."

"She wasn't just some random girl…That wasn't..."

The look Tifa gave him obviously said she didn't believe him, he tried again "No, really."

Tifa turned back to do the dishes.

"Tifa, listen."

"I am listening, Cloud."

"Look at me." Tifa let out a deep breath and turned to face him, "Yes?"

"That girl, Blair. She…Back before the crisis she was a Turk who want by the codename 'Cissnei.' During that time she met and befriended Zack." At the mention of Zack, Tifa start to realize where this was going and immediately felt all her anger deflate, "Cloud."

He shook his head a wistful smile on his lips and continued, "She never got a chance to tell him her real name. She just that that if she met me-the man he died saving-and told me her name she could put some closure to that part of her life. I just noticed a little while ago that you were angry, I swear."

She didn't really know what to say to that. Cloud never really had anyone who he could reminisce with about Zack. For Aerith, he had her and all their other companions, but Zack she only had a few memories from when she was fifteen. She felt horrible; she should have just asked him out right instead of getting angry. "Cloud, I –"

"No," he said his hand finding hers, "No guilt, remember."

She smiled at him, "Right." Cloud pressed a kiss to her hand, and then she moved toward him to press her lips to his.

"What else do you need to do?"

"Just the dishes." He gave a grunt in acknowledgement as she moved back to the sink. She had just finished the last glass when he spoke again:

"Hey, Teef, what do you say you go put on one of those old skirts of yours for me?"


End file.
